Millions of Americans enjoy camping and traveling as their preferred leisure time activity. Among avid campers, many choose to do so in recreational vehicles that range in size from small pop-up campers that are designed to be towed behind a car or truck to large motorized recreational vehicles (RV's) with integral engines. These RV's provide all the comforts of home, including a multitude of storage cabinets and cupboards to hold food, materials, and supplies. Unfortunately, the contents of such cabinets tend to move and slide about as the RV travels down the road or during stops. In instances of rough roads it is not uncommon to have one of these cabinet doors accidentally open, causing the contents to spill out upon the floor of the RV. Should such materials be made of glass or other fragile materials, breakage can happen and require a large amount of cleanup. Even if such cabinet doors do not open on their own, many RV occupants have been surprised when opening a cabinet at a later time and having the contents fall out upon them.
While various shelf retainers and barriers have attempted to provide a way to selectively retain, hold, or otherwise support shelved items, none have been suitable for use to solve these problems. Examples of these attemtps can be seen by reference in several U.S. Patents. U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,872, issued in the name of Hagerman, discloses a shelf retainer for mobile vehicle refrigerators. U.S. Pat. No. 4,118,087, issued in the name of Dorf, discloses recreational vehicle shelf bars. U.S. Pat. No. 4,437,572, issued in the name of Hoffman, discloses a shelf retainer. U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,198, issued in the name of Reed, discloses a flexible barrier for a shelf.
While these devices may accomplish their specific intended purpose, each suffers from one (1) or more disadvantage or deficiency with respect to design, function, or effectiveness. In particular, these attempts do not provide an effective method of adjusting the width of the retainer in order for the device to be used on various types and sizes of cabinets or cupboards. Additionally, these attempts typically do not allow a user to conveniently access those shelved items without removing the retainer and also may interfere with proper operation of the cabinet or cupboard doors.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a means by which items inside of cabinets located in recreational vehicles can be safely and securely stored without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.